Dyson Invests £1bn In Battery Development

Steve McCaskill is editor of TechWeekEurope and ChannelBiz. He joined
as a reporter in 2011 and covers all areas of IT, with a particular interest in telecommunications, mobile and networking, along with sports technology.

Dyson is to invest £1 billion in battery technology over the next five years as sales of its cordless vacuums and humidifiers soar – especially in Asia.

The British manufacturer, owned by Sir James Dyson, is the latest company to investigate how to increase the capacity of batteries and the speed at which they can be charged in order to cope with power-hungry devices such as smartphones and consumer electronics.

Dyson battery investment

Last year, the firm invested in Sakti3, a University of Michigan spin-off that has created solid state battery technology that can potentially store twice as much energy as current-generation liquid-based lithium batteries used in smartphones, tablets and cars.

Sales of Dyson’s battery-powered cordless vacuums rose by two thirds in 2015 and are now greater than traditional mains-powered units. The company controls one quarter of the cordless market.

Long-lasting batteries have risen to the top of many consumers’ wish lists as rapid advances in smartphone technology have not been matched by the battery technology that powers them.

Many want Apple to use its extensive cash reserves to develop more advanced batteries, while others have focused on creating more energy efficient cellular, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth networks, which can be one of the biggest users of power.

Smartphone manufacturers have also introduced low power modes that switch off or turn down non-essential fucntions when users need to conserve battery

Companies like Huawei and Oppo have instead looked at how quickly existing batteries can be replenished and are working on super-fast chargers. While this would eliminate some of the grievances, it would be less useful for those who are away from mains electricity or don’t have the correct charger with them.